Blame easily spread from goal on out as Flyers fall into 3-0 hole against Bruins (With Video)

Philadelphia Flyers goalie Brian Boucher skates off the ice as he replaced by Sergei Bobrovsky (35) following a goal by Boston Bruins' Nathan Horton, which gave the Bruins a 4-0 lead, during the second period in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinal NHL Stanley Cup hockey playoff series in Boston, Wednesday, May 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

BOSTON -- One year later, the situation is exactly the same, and yet, this time, if there is another miracle comeback in store for the Flyers it will have to be done without their best defenseman, and in lieu of any credible goaltending.

Once again Brian Boucher started in goal. Once again he was pulled after a brutal performance.

And once again the Flyers face a three-game deficit in a best-of-seven series against Boston.

Boucher allowed four goals on 20 shots - two in the first 63 seconds of the game - and the Flyers were physically pounded out of the TD Garden by the Boston Bruins 5-1 Wednesday.

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Boston now leads the series 3-0 and can eliminate the Flyers here in Game 4 Friday night.

"This is not the time to point fingers and it's not the time to get down," Mike Richards said. "It's a time to stick together as a group and hopefully do something special."

Zdeno Chara scored 30 seconds into the game and David Krejci added a goal 33 seconds later, and the rout was on.

In the second period Daniel Paille scored his first career playoff goal on an odd-man rush after defenseman Danny Syvret inexplicably passed up an open shot and threw a bad pass across the zone to spring the Bruins on the breakout.

Boucher's night ended when he let a weak little shot from Nathan Horton slide between his pads 15:14 into the second period.

When he saw Sergei Bobrovsky coming off the bench, Boucher turned and slammed his stick against the left post.

It might be the lasting image Philadelphia fans have the amiable goalie, as he is a free agent in the offseason and likely won't get the nod in Game 4.

It was the sixth time in 10 playoff games that coach Peter Laviolette had to pull the starting goalie, and third consecutive game against the Bruins.

Granted, the Game 2 goalie switch was because of an injury to Boucher, but not the other five abysmal performances, three by Boucher, one by Bobrovsky and one by Michael Leighton.

The first goal by Chara came on a slapper from the left circle after a complete breakdown in defensive zone coverage on the opening shift by Richards' line and the defensive pairing of Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn.

Boucher can probably be forgiven for that one, although he had a clean look at the shot.

However the second goal, which again was set up by shoddy defensive coverage, was one he could have had.

He saw the pass from Milan Lucic to Krejci out front and followed it to be in position to make the save - but didn't.

"(It was) 100 percent (defensive breakdowns)," said Sean O'Donnell, defending his goalie. "You can't let Chara come right down the slot like that and let him blast it off the crossbar. There's not many goalies who are going to make that save. The next one was a breakdown where we let (Krejci) shoot from five feet away.

"It's disappointing to have breakdowns like that when it was really a must win. In the first minute to throw Boucher under the bus like that is unfortunate."

At this point, Laviolette called perhaps the earliest timeout in NHL history - 1:03 into the game.

Unlike every other timeout he's called as a coach, he didn't use it to talk to his team - instead leaving that to assistant coach Craig Berube.

Laviolette walked over to the end of the bench to have words with Boucher during the entire timeout.

The goalie seemed calm after that for the remainder of the first period and most of the second, but the mistake by Syvret that led to Paille's goal seemed to unnerve him again.

Then Horton's shot proved to be the complete undoing.

Boucher chucked his stick that he slammed against the post down the tunnel as he left the ice, and remained there for several minutes.

The Boston fans, smelling blood, began a lengthy chorus of chants that included "We want Boucher," and "Boucher (stinks)."

"We've been hanging our goalies out to dry here," said Jeff Carter, who returned to the lineup for the first time since Game 4 against Buffalo (knee). "The guys on the ice have to take (the blame)."

Andrej Meszaros got a goal back for the Flyers a little more than a minute after the goalie switch, but any momentum that might have brought was quickly nullified by a Kimmo Timonen penalty one minute later.

Now they face a near-impossible comeback. They probably won't have Pronger (back injury) to help. They have a goaltending situation that is in virtual shambles. They have a tired team, with no evidence of enough life left for such a tall task.

"We have to try to win one game and go from there. We can't look at it like we have to win four in a row," Danny Briere said. "We're not going to win four games on Friday."

The way it looks this year, he could have left out the "on Friday" part.